Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) and The Rights Practice (TRP) Communiqué Alleging Arbitrary Detention of Two Human Rights Defenders JI Xiaolong and CHEN Pinlin for Exercising Right to Freedom of Expression about COVID-19 Pandemic, Requesting Urgent Action and WGAD Review

September 10, 2024 Comments Off

Submission to:

Working Group on Arbitrary Detention

Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders

Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression

Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers

Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health

I. IDENTITY

A) JI Xiaolong 季孝龙

1. Family name: Ji (季)

2. First name: Xiaolong (孝龙)

3. Sex: Male

4. Birth date or age (at the time of detention): 10 July 1976

5. Nationality/Nationalities: PR China

6. (a) Identity document (if any): Chinese NationalID Card

(b) Issued by: Jiangsu Province

(d) No.:

7. Profession and/or activity (if believed to be relevant to the arrest/detention):

Ji Xiaolong is a prominent human rights defender and online commentator. Before he became involved in human rights advocacy, he founded and ran a business in Shanghai. Ji is also a Christian. In 2015, Ji was summoned by Shanghai police for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” for writing articles online about democracy and constitutionalism and given 15 days administrative detention as punishment, which is believed to be when he started becoming even more involved in human rights advocacy.

Ji then spent 3.5 years in prison from 2018-2022 on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” for his “toilet revolution” campaign. After China’s top leader Xi Jinping gave a speech in 2018 about improving public bathroom facilities, Ji wrote slogans criticizing Xi and the Chinese Communist Party in various toilets. He was detained in July 2018 and held in “residential surveillance in a designation location,” a form of de facto enforced disappearance. He was tried and convicted in January 2019. Ji served his sentence at Shanghai City Baimaoling Prison, where he faced torture and other forms of ill-treatment. Ji was released in February 2022 at the end of his sentence.

8. Address of usual residence:

II. ARREST

1. Date of arrest: 31 August 2022

2. Place of arrest (as detailed as possible): His home in Pudong New District, Shanghai around 3:30pm

3. Forces who carried out the arrest or are believed to have carried it out: Officers from Meiyuan New Village Police Station under the Pudong New District Branch of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau

4. Did they show a warrant or other decision by a public authority? Authorities did not show a warrant when arresting Ji Xiaolong on 31 August 2022. His partner was verbally told on 2 September he had been criminal detained and his parents, who live 130 km away in Jiangsu Province, received a written criminal detention notice on 4 September.

5. Authority who issued the warrant or decision: Shanghai Pudong New District Police Force

6. Reasons for the arrest imputed by the authorities: “Picking quarrels and provoking trouble” (寻衅滋事罪)

7. Legal basis for the arrest including relevant legislation applied (if known):

Article 293 of China’s Criminal Law (“Picking quarrels and provoking trouble”) stipulates a fixed-term imprisonment of up to five years to those who (1) willfully attack another person and the circumstances are serious; (2) chasing, intercepting, or cursing another person, and the circumstances are serious; (3) forcibly taking away, demanding, or willfully damaging or seizing public or private property; and the circumstances are serious; or (4) creating a disturbance in a public place, causing serious disorder.

III. Detention

1. Date of detention: 23 September 2022 (formal arrest); 17 March 2023 (indicted); 27 October 2023 (convicted and sentenced to 4.5 years in prison).

2. Duration of detention (if not known, probable duration): Ji Xiaolong has been continuously detained since 31 August 2022.

3. Forces holding the detainee under custody:

Shanghai New Prison, previously Shanghai Public Security Bureau Pudong New District

4. Places of detention (indicate any transfer and present place of detention): Pudong New District Detention Center, No. 351, Huayi Road, Pudong New District, Shanghai, 201210 (31 August 2022 – unknown date in early June 2024*);

Shanghai New Prison, Ward 8, No. 7935 Waiqingsong Road, Qingpu District, Shanghai, 201701 (Unknown date in early June 2024*- present)

*Prisons do not notify the families of the exact transfer date before the individual is moved to prison. Ji’s family were notified on 9 June 2024 that he had already arrived at Shanghai New Prison, and therefore CHRD believes he was moved in early June.

5. Authorities that ordered the detention:

Shanghai Public Security Bureau Pudong New District ordered his criminal detention

Shanghai Pudong New District Procuratorate ordered his arrest and indictment

Shanghai Pudong New District People’s Court ordered his custodial sentence

6. Reasons for the detention imputed by the authorities: “Picking quarrels and provoking trouble” (寻衅滋事罪)

7. Legal basis for the detention including relevant legislation applied (if known):

IV. Describe the circumstances of the arrest.

In the afternoon of 31 August 2022, Ji Xiaolong was taken away from his home by police from the Meiyuan New Village Police Station of the Pudong Branch of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau and placed under criminal detention the same day. Police did not show a warrant, and his partner and family were only notified days later.

V. Indicate reasons why you consider the arrest and/or detention to be arbitrary

Ji Xiaolong’s has been convicted and sentenced to 4.5 years in prison on charges that are tied to his exercise of his right to freedom of expression online.

During the spring of 2022, Shanghai instituted a strict COVID lockdown that lasted approximately two months and caused numerous disruptions to economic and social rights. It particularly impacted vulnerable groups such as migrant workers and those with pre-existing medical conditions.

After Ji Xiaolong was released from prison on 9 February 2022 after completing a 3.5-year prison sentence, he began to speak out online about the Shanghai government’s COVID lockdown measures. On 2 April, he posted a “citizen’s petition” on WeChat and Twitter (now X), that called on the government to stop its restrictive pandemic measures. His WeChat account was blocked as a result. On 4 April, he released an open letter to “All Public Officials” on his Twitter account, where he posted under the handle @citizenzjcn and had nearly 32,000 followers, and the next day gave an interview to a foreign media outlet out about his online criticism of the government’s pandemic measures.

On 30 April 2022, Ji Xiaolong was briefly detained at Meiyuan New Village Police Station on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and then released on bail the next day. Police confiscated his phone, ID card, and passport. He continued to post comments online on his Twitter account between April and his detention in August. Police officers and national security officers took him away him briefly for questioning several times, including on 29 May 2022, 4 June 2022, and 23 August 2022.

On 29 August 2022, Ji posted online an open letter on Twitter criticizing Shanghai’s then-Party Secretary, Li Qiang, (who became premier of China in March 2023) and called on him to step down and take accountability for the “humanitarian disaster” caused by the lockdown. The letter also reiterated his opposition to China’s top official Xi Jinping and criticised Xi for his “wild ambition” to amend the Constitution and “rule for life.” The letter stated the police would not allow him to go back to his hometown to take care of his elderly parents and obtain his social insurance card. Ji Xiaolong created his open letter as an NFT (non-fungible token) so it could not be censored and would “always exist” online. Two days after issuing the open letter, Ji was taken away from his home and criminally detained on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” on 31 August 2022. He was formally arrested on 23 September 2022, according to a written notice his parents received on the 27 September.

During a meeting with his lawyer on 11 January 2023, Ji said that the investigation had focused on his comments about the pandemic measures, which police were treating as acts of spreading rumors, and that he was suspected of insulting national leaders for his comments about Li Qiang and Xi Jinping.

On 17 March 2023, Ji Xiaolong was indicted by Shanghai Pudong New District Procuratorate. The indictment stated^[1]:

“From April to August 2022, the defendant Ji Xiaolong published or forwarded a large number of false information that seriously damaged the country’s image on the overseas social software Twitter. At the time of the incident, the defendant Ji Xiaolong’s Twitter account has 31,217 followers. On April 30, 2022, the defendant Ji Xiaolong was arrested by the police and refused to confess the facts of the crime after he arrived. He also published or forwarded a large amount of false information many times while he was out on bail awaiting trial in this case.”

The indictment did not mention the COVID-19 pandemic or specifics around which content Ji had posted was “false,” but made clear that his online expression was the reason for his detention.

Shanghai Pudong New District People’s Court tried Ji Xiaolong on 21 June 2023 and convicted him on 27 October 2023 on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” sentencing him to four years and six months in prison. The court stated that Ji Xiaolong “spread a large amount of false information on overseas social networks, instigated trouble, and confused the public” though again did not cite any specific content. The court also stated that Ji Xiaolong was a “repeat offender” and therefore “should be punished more severely according to law” (under Article 65 of the Criminal Law, which punishes recidivists convicted within five years of completing their sentences).

Ji Xiaolong appealed his sentence, which was turned down in April 2024.

The crime that Ji was convicted of, “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” (Article 293, Criminal Law), has been repeatedly used by authorities since 2013 to punish internationally-protected forms of online expression. On 10 September 2013, a Judicial Interpretation issued by the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) and Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) stated that anyone who fabricates false information, knowingly spreads false information, or organizes or instigates others to spread false information online should be punished under Article 293 (4). This fourth sub-category of Article 293 is so vague and overly broad, that nearly any expression can fall under the definition of “creating a disturbance in a public place, causing serious disorder”.

This crime has been repeatedly used to target human rights defenders, lawyers, writers, and others for their online expression. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has in the past considered the crime of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and other charges to be “so vague and overly broad that it was impossible to invoke a legal basis justifying the deprivation of liberty” (A/HRC/WGAD/2018/62, para 58).

The above circumstances constitute violations of Ji Xiaolong’s right to peacefully exercise freedom of expression, including those guaranteed under Category II of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (i.e., when the deprivation of liberty results from the exercise of the rights under Articles 12, 18, 19, 21, 22, and 26), and freedoms guaranteed by Articles 18, 19, and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Ji Xiaolong was also subjected to procedural violations of his legal rights from the point of detention through their court proceedings. Police did not show a warrant of arrest when detaining Ji on 31 August 2022, in violation of Article 85 of the Criminal Procedure Law (CPL), and his family did not receive the detention notice until 4 September even though the family must be notified within 24 hours under the same provision. While there are exceptions to Article 85, none applied to Ji’s case (eg he was not held on national security or terrorist charges, it would not obstruct the investigation, and it did not seem like there was “no way of contacting them” as they were notified within a week).

Authorities also deprived Ji Xiaolong of access to his legal counsel beyond 48 hours after a request, the limit set for a non-national security crime (Article 39, CPL). When he was granted visits with his lawyer, initially via video call, he shared details about inhumane conditions in the detention center and that his complaints about medical treatment were being ignored.

Ji Xiaolong was first granted a visit with his lawyer on 17 September 2022 via video call. He told his lawyer he was suffering from gum disease and untreated dental issues, the cells were very crowded and his family’s packages were rejected due to pandemic measures. He was granted another video meeting on 30 September, and told his lawyer that while he had not been tortured, he was only allowed a hot shower once a week, and his dental issues remained untreated. On 1 November 2022, Ji was granted his first in person meeting with his lawyer. He told his lawyer that the room in the detention center where he was imprisoned could only accommodate 25 people, but because there were many prisoners, there were more than 60 people in the cell. They could not lie down normally when sleeping, nor could they flex their waists and arms normally. His toothache had become very severe and his requests for treatment were being ignored.

On 26 April 2023, Ji’s lawyer visited him again in detention. Ji appeared optimistic and in good spirits, but he said his teeth still had not been treated and the conditions were terrible in the detention center. The lawyer was not permitted to read Ji’s case files, in violation of Article 40 of the Criminal Procedure Law which allows lawyers to read, copy and reproduce case files after the case has been transferred to the procuratorate for review. In Ji’s case, he had already been indicted on 17 March 2023 by the procuratorate.

The trial of Ji Xiaolong took place on 21 June 2023 at the Shanghai Pudong New District Court. Ji himself was only told about the hearing that morning, in violation of Article 187 of the Criminal Procedure Law which states that trial summons should be sent at least three days in advance. He protested to the judge about the violation of his rights, but was ignored. He said the self-defense materials he had prepared for the court were confiscated by the detention center and he was not allowed to bring them with him. His defense lawyer asked the court to postpone the hearing, but the request was denied. Ji Xiaolong’s father was allowed to attend the trial.

Ji’s defense lawyers also requested the court to exclude unlawfully obtained evidence, the statements made by Ji and his partner, as they were made under duress and ill-treatment. The prosecution and the court agreed, and these statements were not presented during the trial (upholding Article 60 of the CPL). During the hearing, Ji’s appearance had drastically changed since before his detention: hair had turned partially white and he had become extremely skinny.

In early June 2024, Ji was transferred to Shanghai New Prison. As of 12 July 2024, Ji’s family’s application for a visit had still not been approved. Prison officials said that the public security officer in charge of the case needs to agree before issuing a visit notice. Ji’s family remain worried about his current conditions, and under China’s Prison Law, they have a right to meet with him (Article 48).

While there was one instance of Ji’s rights being upheld, overall the above circumstances demonstrate multiple violations of Ji Xiaolong’s right to a fair trial, guaranteed under Category III of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 9) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 9).

VI. Indicate internal steps, including domestic remedies, taken especially with the legal and administrative authorities, particularly for the purpose of establishing the detention and, as appropriate, their results or the reasons why such steps or remedies were ineffective or why they were not taken.

On November 14, 2022, over 115 friends and supporters of Ji Xiaolong signed an open letter that urged authorities to improve the situation for Ji Xiaolong in detention, including the overcrowding and lack of dental treatment. Their open letter did not result in an improvement in the conditions of his detention.

Ji Xiaolong appealed against his 4.5-year prison sentence and the hearing was held on 17 March 2024 at Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court. During his hearing, Ji read out a statement, during which he pointed out that the persecution against him had never stopped since the investigation began. He was not given glasses, books to read, or dental treatment in the detention center, and his basic rights were not protected. His arrest was entirely due to his appeal to officials to protect the people’s rights during the epidemic and his open letter to Li Qiang. The judge interrupted his statement. Ji’s father attended the appeal hearing, which ended without a sentence being pronounced. On 17 April 2024, the court ruled against Ji and rejected his appeal.

Within China, there have been growing calls for reform of the crime of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. In February 2023, a delegate to the National People’s Congress, Zhu Zhengfu, said the law should be revised because “the definition…is too vague” and thus “frequently confused and easily abused in legal practice”.^[2] Zhu is also the deputy of the All China Lawyers Association, a state-backed legal professional association which has also introduced rules to restrict lawyers’ rights. An August 2023 report described a survey conducted by the Supreme People’s Court in two provinces which found the charge was being overused.^[3] However, legal scholars believe reform is unlikely.^[4]

I. IDENTITY

B) CHEN Pinlin 陈品霖

1. Family name: Chen (陈)

2. First name: Pinlin (品霖)

3. Sex: Male

4. Birth date or age (at the time of detention): 8 August 1991

5. Nationality/Nationalities: PR China

6. (a) Identity document (if any): Chinese National ID card

(b) Issued by: Shanghai

(d) No.:

7. Profession and/or activity (if believed to be relevant to the arrest/detention):

Chen Pinlin was the manager of Shanghai Xinfei Media Co., and an online commentator who used the screenname “Plato”.

8. Address of usual residence:

II. Arrest

1. Date of arrest: 28 November 2023 (taken away); 29 November 2023 (criminally detained)

2. Place of arrest (as detailed as possible): His home in Shanghai.

3. Forces who carried out the arrest or are believed to have carried it out: Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau, Baoshan Branch

4. Did they show a warrant or other decision by a public authority? Yes

5. Authority who issued the warrant or decision: Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau, Baoshan Branch

6. Reasons for the arrest imputed by the authorities: “Picking quarrels and provoking trouble” (寻衅滋事罪)

7. Legal basis for the arrest including relevant legislation applied (if known):

III. Detention

1. Date of detention: 5 January 2024 (formal arrest), 3 April 2024 (indictment)

2. Duration of detention (if not known, probable duration): Chen Pinlin has been continuously detained since 28 November 2023.

3. Forces holding the detainee under custody:

Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau, Baoshan Branch

4. Places of detention (indicate any transfer and present place of detention):

Baoshan District Detention Centre, Shanghai

5. Authorities that ordered the detention:

Shanghai Baoshan District People’s Procuratorate

6. Reasons for the detention imputed by the authorities: “Picking quarrels and provoking trouble” (寻衅滋事罪)

7. Legal basis for the detention including relevant legislation applied (if known):

IV. Describe the circumstances of the arrest.

At 23:50, just before midnight, on 28 November 2023, the police came to Chen’s residence and summoned him with a legal notice and search warrant. According to a source close to Chen, another person present during the arrest said that the police were relatively civilized throughout, but they cautioned that person not to speak publicly about his arrest. The police stated that they were only taking Chen away for questioning, and that talking about it would harm Chen’s case [we believe trying to indicate that Chen might be released or not formally detained if they kept the police action hidden]. That person notified his family, who live in Fujian. It is unclear when his family received the written arrest notice.

V. Indicate reasons why you consider the arrest and/or detention to be arbitrary

The detention of Chen Pinlin is due to his exercise of his right to freedom of expression online.

On 26 November 2022, Chen attended and filmed a protest on Urumqi Middle Road in Shanghai. The protest broke out in response to a fire in Urumqi City, Xinjiang two days prior during which several residents reportedly died after not being able to escape due to strict COVID-19 lockdown measures. Many Shanghai residents, who had endured one of the strictest lockdowns that year, gathered on Urumqi Middle Road. They chanted slogans, including those that called on Chinese leader Xi Jinping to resign, and some were detained. The protest in Shanghai was one of the first in a wider protest movement across the country that began after the fire, which was later called the “White Paper Protests” or “White Paper Movement” (also sometimes described as the “A4 Revolution”).

Chen compiled his footage, some shot by his friends, and other footage from media into a documentary called “Urumqi Middle Road” (《乌鲁木齐中路》) (and also called “Not the Foreign Force”) which he released on YouTube on 27 November 2023, near the one-year anniversary of the protests. He also posted the video or promoted it on his accounts on X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, and Telegram.

Chen was detained on 28 November 2023, the day after he posted the video online, on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” Chen’s loved ones were only able to find a lawyer to take on his case till mid-December 2023 due to the sensitivity around his case. On 5 January 2024, Chen was formally arrested on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” On 18 February 2024, his case was transferred to the procuratorate’s office for prosecution. On 3 April 2024, he was indicted by Shanghai Baoshan District Procuratorate.

The indictment states the reason for Chen’s arrest was because he produced and published online the documentary video. It states^[5]:

“The defendant Chen Pinlin used his mobile phone to shoot and save live video of the “11.26” incident on Urumqi Middle Road in this city [Shanghai] on the evening of November 26, 2022. He later used it for the purpose of expressing dissatisfaction with the epidemic prevention and control policies and driving traffic to overseas social platforms to seek economic benefits.

In September 2023, Chen began to produce the ‘Urumqi Middle Road Documentary on the first Anniversary of the White Paper Movement’ (referred to as the ‘Documentary’, 76 minutes long) through the ‘YouTube’ video software. It was completed on November 27. Chen promoted it through multiple overseas social platform software such as ‘Twitter,’ ‘Telegram’ and ‘Reddit,’ causing the ‘documentary’ to quickly spread on the overseas Internet, including garnering up to 210,000 ‘Twitter’ likes.

Much of the content of this ‘documentary’ was false and Chen knowingly spread fabricated information, causing serious disrupting to public order; the ‘documentary’ forwarded and quoted insulting remarks about national leaders, damaging the country’s image and seriously endangering national interests. The circumstances are serious.”

The indictment is clear that Chen is being prosecuted for posting a compilation of video clips online, some that he shot himself and others from reputable international media outlets. To describe the footage as ‘fabricated information’ is itself false. The footage included clips of protesters chanting a slogan calling for Xi Jinping to step down which resulted in the accusation against Chen of insulting national leaders. Chen himself stated in a police interrogation that he was too afraid to chant the slogan “because I knew it was too sensitive”. China’s Constitution protects the right to freedom of speech under Article 35.

The crime that Chen has been accused of, “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” (Article 293, Criminal Law), has been repeatedly used by authorities since 2013 to punish internationally-protected forms of online expression. On 10 September 2013, a Judicial Interpretation issued by the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) and Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) stated that anyone who fabricates false information, knowingly spreads false information, or organizes or instigates others to spread false information online should be punished under Article 293 (4). This fourth sub-category of Article 293 is so vague and overly broad, that nearly any expression can fall under the definition of “creating a disturbance in a public place, causing serious disorder”.

The above circumstances constitute violations of Chen Pinlin’s right to peacefully exercise freedom of expression, including those guaranteed under Category II of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (i.e., when the deprivation of liberty results from the exercise of the rights under Articles 12, 18, 19, 21, 22, and 26), and freedoms guaranteed by Articles 18, 19, and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Chen Pinlin’s lawyer wrote a legal opinion dated 13 March 2024 (and published on Chinese-language websites four days later), which detail how the prosecution of Chen is invalid because it infringes on his right to free speech, which is protected by Chinese laws. Despite this opinion, Chen remains in custody at the time of submission, and had a trial scheduled for 7 June 2024 which was not held.

The following comments were attributed to Chen Pinlin when introducing his documentary online. They were disseminated by Chinese-language websites hosted overseas to help raise awareness of his case and how his motivation for making the documentary clearly fell within his right to freedom of expression.^[6]

“I am Plato, the director. In November 2022, I witnessed the protest in Shanghai in the evening of 26 November. This was the first time I participated in a political event in China, and also the first time to voice my political demands in China. In addition to the content shot by individuals on that day, the film brings together iconic video footage from before and after the protest. The film is an attempt to present the journey of how China’s dynamic zero-COVID policy created a ‘pressure cooker’ in society pushed to the point of explosion, prompting people to take to the streets to protest.

After the incident, the Chinese government went against the truth and wantonly smeared the facts, misleading many people who did not know the truth into thinking that the Shanghai protests and the White Paper Protests were the work of foreign forces. But is this really the case?

On the first anniversary of the protest on Urumqi Road in Shanghai, I made this documentary “Urumqi Middle Road” to record my personal experience and feelings of participating in the protest. I want to explore why when internal conflicts arise in China, the blame is also placed at the hands of foreign forces? The answer is clear to everyone. The more the government misleads, forgets, and blocks, the more we need to speak out, remind, and remember.

Remember the White Paper protests, remember 26 November, remember Urumqi Middle Road, remember the Xinjiang fire, remember the Guizhou bus, remember dynamic zero, remember “big whites”, remember June 4th, remember the Cultural Revolution, remember the three years of disasters. Only by remembering the ugliness can we look toward the light, and I hope China can usher in its own light soon.” ^[7]

Within China, there have been growing calls for reform of the crime of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. In February 2023, a delegate to the National People’s Congress, Zhu Zhengfu, said the law should be revised because “the definition…is too vague” and thus “frequently confused and easily abused in legal practice”.^[8] Zhu is also the deputy of the All China Lawyers Association, a state-backed legal professional association which has also introduced rules to restrict lawyers’ rights. An August 2023 report described a survey conducted by the Supreme People’s Court in two provinces which found the charge was being overused.^[9] However, legal scholars believe reform is unlikely.^[10]

VII. Full name, postal and electronic addresses of the person(s) submitting the information (telephone and fax number, if possible).

Renee Xia

Executive Director

Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD)

Imogen Rogerson Costello

Senior Project Officer

The Rights Practice

^[1] CHRD’s translation of portion of original document

^[2] https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202303/21/WS64190f5ea31057c47ebb59f9.html

^[3] https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/11tUo7X_LIqpniQ3AdYLnw

^[4] https://usali.org/usali-perspectives-blog/picking-quarrels-the-one-essential-charge-in-china#

^[5] CHRD’s translation of portion of original document

^[6] CHRD has been unable to trace the origins of the statement, but believes they are accurate and have been reposted by credible websites. Chen Pinlin’s online accounts were deleted after his arrest.

^[7] CHRD’s translation

^[8] https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202303/21/WS64190f5ea31057c47ebb59f9.html

^[9] https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/11tUo7X_LIqpniQ3AdYLnw

^[10] https://usali.org/usali-perspectives-blog/picking-quarrels-the-one-essential-charge-in-china#